Hearts Burning Within Us

Readings: Luke 24:13-35, Secrets of Heaven #7082 (see below)
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Photo by Johannes Plenio on Unsplash

This story of Jesus and his followers on the Road to Emmaus is a story that is full of feeling. It is one that we can easily imagine ourselves in. Perhaps we recognize the disappointment of Cleopas and his friend from our own experience. Perhaps we are comforted and amused by the casual back and forth between them and Jesus. Perhaps we remember times when our own hearts burned with a sense of call, of meaning, or of purpose.

There is something very powerful in the way that this story connects the experiences of disappointment and love, something that echoes the resurrection itself, but specifically at the level of the human heart. 

First, in the disappointment, we can resonate with these two Jesus followers, so deeply shaken and turned-around by the events of the crucifixion. They had invested so much of themselves into Jesus and his teaching. They had expectations of a long-awaited fulfilment, one that would bring their people freedom and renewal. They walked along the road together, processing all that had happened, a support group of two. Perhaps we can remember times when we have done the same, going over events in our mind, trying to figure out what went wrong, or what we could have done differently. Trying to understand the reality of loss, trying to make sense of something that feels unfair or unjust, trying to reconcile why people didn’t see what we could see, trying to discern how to keep on going within circumstances we didn’t anticipate.

They must have felt so lost. It is acutely painful to hope and to be disappointed. For the pain of such a loss is mixed with confusion and shame and disillusionment. Thank goodness Cleopas and his friend had each other. 

Then, into this experience of disappointment comes Jesus. The metaphor of Jesus walking along the road with them, and with us, in this experience is a truly comforting one. Jesus asked them about their experience, even though he surely knew it. He let them tell him of their hopes, fears, disappointment, and he listened, he companioned them in it. This alone is powerful. 

Yet, he also challenged them. They might have had expectations about what Jesus would do politically for the nation of Israel but Jesus had always been clear that his purposes were larger than that. He had always been clear that he would have to die in order to show humanity the depth of God’s solidarity with us, and the power life over death, good over evil, love over hate. Jesus challenged the way they were seeing the story, helped them to let go of the pieces that were holding them back and started them on a new way of thinking, one that would ultimately bring them healing.

Which brings me to the second powerful feeling highlighted in the text today: love. Now of course, the bible speaks of love all the time. But this particular text gets inside the experience of it in a particular way. After they had eventually recognized Jesus, they recalled how their hearts were burning within them as he spoke. I suspect this language is one of the reasons this is a beloved and oft-quoted story: because it describes a deeply human experience of emotion. The language of burning is intense and we often use hyperbole when words are just not quite enough. Cleopas and his friend really felt something that day, something powerful and growing and mysterious. Yet, this story is not only the experience of emotion itself. It is about emotion, specifically love, as a gateway to spiritual growth.

Our tradition is often considered somewhat intellectual. Our guiding theologian wrote a lot of books, just so many words upon words. And we have always understood faith to be something that has to make sense to our intellectual mind. Swedenborg always railed against the notion of people being told that they just “have to believe” things that don’t make sense to them. He thought that to be a dangerously manipulative tool wielded by powerful people and systems, and so he always uplifted each person’s freedom to decide what to believe according to what makes sense to them personally. So we have a strong tradition of trying to understand, of asking questions, and of on-going reflection. You can join us for our Journey of Faith discussion group after coffee hour to experience that side of the tradition.

But despite his many thousands of written words, despite his scientific training and turn of mind, Swedenborg also recognized that love is always at the center of everything. It is the center and essence of the Divine; it is what flows into us human beings to give us life, it is the root of our willing action, it is the motivator of the mind, it is the shaper of our lives.

And therefore, so much of our spiritual work is to open ourselves to love. Yes, we reflect and we discern about the best ways to do that, we untangle our traumas and our beliefs, we settle on values and perspectives that give us meaning, and we determine useful action and structure that reflects it all. And then we need to make space.

For, our doing lives can only take us so far. And the “doing” of useful action is our job in this life to a certain extent because what we do really matters to ourselves and to others. And yet, “doing” that comes from ourselves, even with the best of intentions, leaves us open to disappointment, resentment, anxiety, overwhelm, and burn-out. The next step, the next evolution in all our doing, even all our most wonderful doing that takes care of the world and others and ourselves, the next step is to make space for the inflow of God within it. To let God start the fire in our hearts and keep it burning, to let God’s love flow in with a worthiness, purpose and meaning that supports doing but is not created by doing. To cultivate the experience of the Road to Emmaus in our everyday. To let God walk with us, and in that companionship be open to the inflow of God’s love and the way it sets our hearts aglow.

It’s hard to remember that this next step is possible when we are in the midst of disappointment, resentment, anxiety, overwhelm, disillusionment or whatever challenges show up for us. And so we have stories like this one, stories that remind us that we are not alone on the road of life, stories that encourage us to listen to each other, to reframe our perspectives, to  be open to learning what our hearts can teach us, to remind us to keep walking because God is walking with us.

This week I was encouraged by these words from the writer Sarah Bessey:

I’m going to live as if everything will actually be made right someday and justice will prevail, tears will be wiped away and every exile will lead the dancing. Oh, I’m going to live my life like God is trustworthy. I’ll act like the underdog of love always comes from behind to win by total upset. I’m going to say yes to the possibilities of participating in the renewal of all things even when they wear very small, ordinary disguises….I’ll keep loving this world until it breaks my heart and then I’ll sit in the pieces, holding onto love.(1)

Cleopas and his friend were walking along with broken hearts that day. They loved their small piece of their world in the way they understood it and it broke their heart. And Jesus came along to resurrect their hearts the way that he had resurrected his body. In wonder they said, were not our hearts burning within us when he walked with us on the road? Those hearts that were broken only moments ago? Yes, the very same.

I’ll keep loving this world until it breaks my heart and then I’ll sit in the pieces, holding onto love. Bessey (as borrowed from Wendell Berry) calls this “practicing resurrection.” Friends, wherever we are on the road, let us practice resurrection by anticipating its reality, let us make space within our hearts for the rising of our God. Amen.

(1) Sarah Bessey's Field Notes, April 13th, 2026

​Readings:

Luke 24:13-35
On the Road to Emmaus
13 Now that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem.
14 They were talking with each other about everything that had happened.
15 As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them;
16 but they were kept from recognizing him.
17 He asked them, “What are you discussing together as you walk along?”They stood still, their faces downcast.
18 One of them, named Cleopas, asked him, “Are you the only one visiting Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?”
19 “What things?” he asked. “About Jesus of Nazareth,” they replied. “He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people.
20 The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him;
21 but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel. And what is more, it is the third day since all this took place.
22 In addition, some of our women amazed us. They went to the tomb early this morning
23 but didn’t find his body. They came and told us that they had seen a vision of angels, who said he was alive.
24 Then some of our companions went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but they did not see Jesus.”
25 He said to them, “How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken!
26 Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?”
27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.
28 As they approached the village to which they were going, Jesus continued on as if he were going farther.
29 But they urged him strongly, “Stay with us, for it is nearly evening; the day is almost over.” So he went in to stay with them.
30 When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them.
31 Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight.
32 They asked each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?”
33 They got up and returned at once to Jerusalem. There they found the Eleven and those with them, assembled together
34 and saying, “It is true! The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon.”
35 Then the two told what had happened on the way, and how Jesus was recognized by them when he broke the bread.

Secrets of Heaven 7082

There are two elements in the physical world that create life there, and they are warmth and light. There are also two elements in the spiritual world that create life there, and they are love and faith. The physical phenomenon of warmth corresponds to the spiritual phenomenon of love, and the physical phenomenon of light corresponds to the spiritual phenomenon of faith. That is why “spiritual warmth” or “spiritual fire” means love, and “spiritual light” means faith. What is more, love actually is the vital heat in us, and people recognize that love makes us warm. Faith actually is the light we see by, and people can recognize that faith enlightens us.